Bree Akesson is the Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Global Adversity and Wellbeing, Associate Director of the Centre for Research on Security Practices, and Associate Professor of Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University. She has worked for over two decades with children and families impacted by war and displacement in settings such as Chechnya, Northern Uganda, Palestine, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. Her program of research ranges from micro-level understandings of the experiences of war-affected families to macro-level initiatives to strengthen global social service workforce systems. Current research projects include the perinatal experiences of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, the impact of climate change on families displaced by war, and integrated service access for refugee families. Her 2022 book From Bureaucracy to Bullets: Extreme Domicide and the Right to Home (co-authored with Dr. Andrew Basso) was the inspiration for a United Nations report calling for the classification of home demolition as a war crime.
Hari KC is a Research Fellow with the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Migration and Integration program at Toronto Metropolitan University and teaching faculty at Wilfrid Laurier University. At CERC, he co-leads the research project Digital Nomads: The changing world of migration, mobility and work. He is also an affiliated researcher with the Migrant Integration in the Mid-2st Century: Bridging Divides research program. Hari is associated with the Global Labour Research Centre (GLRC) at York University and the International Migration Research Centre (IMRC) at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University. His current research focuses on digital nomads, changing modalities of migration and mobility and the newly emerging digital nomad visa policy regime around the world. His work has been published in several journal articles, book chapters and research reports addressing issues of international migration, migration governance and the future of work. He has taught at Tribhuvan University in Nepal and also worked, in various roles, for the BBC Media Action, Embassy of India, and the Carter Centre. Hari has a PhD in Global Governance from the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University, and master’s degrees in English and Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Waterloo in Canada.
Jenna Hennebry (TBC) is a Professor at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Coordinator of the Women and Gender Studies Program, and past Associate Dean of the School of International Policy and Governance at Wilfrid Laurier University. She is Co- Founder of the International Migration Research Centre and the Migration Worker Health Project, and Founder of the Gender+Migration Hub funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Jenna is a member of the Canadian Council for Refugees Subcommittee on Migrant Workers and the UN Expert Working Group on Women’s Human Rights in the Global Compact for Migration. She also sits on the Advisory Board of the Global Migration Data Centre (GMDC) and the Migration Research and Publishing High-Level Advisers, both of the IOM. Jenna has carried out globally comparative research on labour migration governance, gender and migrant worker rights and health, for over 15 years. She has consulted for UN Women, IOM, UNODC, and multiple government agencies. Her work is published in journals such as International Migration, Journal on International Migration and Integration, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
Kim Rygiel is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science and the Balsillie School of International Affairs, and is Co-Director of the International Migration Research Centre at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. She is Co-chief Editor of Citizenship Studies; author of Globalizing Citizenship (2010) and co-author (with F. Baban and S. Ilcan) of The Precarious Lives of Syrians: Migration, Citizenship, and Temporary Protection in Turkey (2021). Edited books include Fostering Pluralism through Solidarity Activism in Europe: Everyday Encounters with Newcomers (with F. Baban, 2020); Citizenship, Migrant Activism and the Politics of Movement (with P. Nyers, 2012). She has published in journals such as Critical Sociology, Citizenship Studies, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Ethics and Global Politics.
Maissaa Almustafa is a Lecturer at the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo. Her primary research interests are on the forcibly displaced. She focuses on their lived experiences as refugees and the politics of marginalization that govern their lives in the Middle East and in their diasporic communities in Europe and Canada. Her scholarship is enhanced by her active involvement in community outreach initiatives in refugee resettlement and integration. Maissaa earned her Ph.D. in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo ON. She completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Glendon Political Science at York University, Toronto, were she joined the Whole-COMM, a research project on migrant integration in Europe and Canada, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020. Her publications and research focus on lived experiences of refugees and the politics of marginalization that govern their lives in the Middle East and in their diasporic communities in Europe and Canada. In her doctoral research, “Refugees from Syria caught between war and borders: A journey towards protection,” which received the Award for Outstanding Graduate Work, she examines the governance structures of refugee protection and the encounters between exclusionary bordering practices and refugees’ agency during their displacement. The findings of her research appeared in leading journals. Dr. Almustafa is currently working towards the publication of her book “Contemporary Narratives of Exile: Rethinking Refugee Protection Worldwide” which is based on her dissertation research, with Wilfrid Laurier Press.
Michael Gordon is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the International Migration Research Centre (IMRC). His research broadly surrounds irregularized migration and the externalization of European border controls, with a particular focus on the acts of solidarity through the work of civil society Search and Rescue (SAR) operations. These research interests coalesce around the theoretical intersections between sovereignty, solidarity, forced migration and borders at the supposed margins of the Global North. Michael holds a PhD in International Relations from McMaster University and an MA in Global Governance from the University of Waterloo. Currently, he serves as a Co-Editor of Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees.
Reena Kurekja is an Associate Professor in the Department of Global Development Studies with cross appointment to Gender Studies Department and affiliation with the Cultural Studies Program at Queen’s University, Canada. Her research interests and filmmaking practice is focussed on bordering regimes, political economy, marriage migration, South Asian masculinities, caste, and trafficking. Her current work examines the intersections of masculinity, securitization of borders and political economy on the lives of undocumented South Asian men in Greece. She is also engaged in another study examining the impact of Far-Right populism in Europe and Canada on racialized migrant workers in the public facing gig economy. She has published in leading journals in the fields of migration, ethnic studies, masculinities, and area studies. Her monograph on marriage migration in India, Why Would I Be Married Here? Marriage Migration and Dispossession in Neoliberal India (Cornell University Press) was published in April 2022. She was a guest editor for a Special Issue for NORMA: International Journal of Masculinity Studies titled, ‘Bordering Regimes and Transitioning Masculinities of Racialized Migrant Men: A Case Study of the EU’. She is putting the final touches to an edited volume for Palgrave titled, South Asians in Southern Europe: Examining Love, Labour, and Desire.
Sarah Turnbull is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo. She researches, teaches, and supervises in the areas of critical border and migration studies and border criminology; criminology and sociolegal studies; punishment, parole, and reentry; postcolonial, antiracist, and feminist thought; and qualitative research methods. Dr. Turnbull is leading a three-year SSHRC-funded study, Reforming Detention: Race, Gender, and Nation in the National Immigration Detention Framework. Her research in the areas of immigration detention, deportation, parole and reentry, and punishment is published in journals such as International Journal of Law in Context, Migration Studies, Social Justice and Punishment & Society and in book chapters in edited collections such as Building Abolition: Decarceration and Social Justice, Criminal Justice Research in an Era of Mass Mobility (Routledge), and After Deportation: Ethnographic Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan).
Setareh Ghahari is Associate Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Therapy and Associate Director (Occupational Therapy Program) at Queen's University. Her research centres on Health and Education Access for vulnerable populations including immigrants/refugees, and people with neurological conditions and chronic health condition. She and her team aim for developing and evaluating interventions to support individuals in gaining the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to manage their health conditions and access and navigate services and opportunities. Her work is published in a variety of journals including Global Journal of Health Science, Journal of Gerontology and Geriatrics, Journal of Immigrant Minor Health, Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy and International Journal of Inclusive Education.
Suzan Ilcan is Professor & University Research Chair at the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies, and the Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo, Canada. Her research focuses on migration and human displacement, border struggles, and citizenship and social justice. Her books include Longing in Belonging: The Cultural Politics of Settlement (Praeger); Mobilities, Knowledge, and Social Justice (McGill-Queen’s UP); Issues in Social Justice: Citizenship and Transnational Struggles (Oxford UP, with T. Basok); The Precarious Lives of Syrians: Migration, Citizenship, and Temporary Protection in Turkey (McGill-Queen’s UP, with K. Rygiel and F. Baban); Migration, Culture and Identity: Making Home Away (Palgrave MacMillan, with V. Shamma, V. Squire, and H. Underhill). Her recent research projects examine migration and bordering practices in the context of people on the move and their experiences of precarity, protection, resettlement, and community-building.